Someone show that kid some Lindros clips. He's got a lot of talent, I'd hate to see his career cut short with stuff like that.

0

Official NJDevs.com Keeper of Gory Corey Schwab, Mike Peluso, Troy Crowder, Jeff Frazee, and Rich Shulmistra."The Devils are that zombie that takes an ax to the skull, a bullet to the temple and is set on fire … and yet keeps lumbering along to the annoyance of all the other zombies." - Puck Daddy

"Quite frankly, all the players are getting paid too much and all the contracts are too long," general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "But if you want to compete in this market and you want to win, there are some things you have to do."

"As it states in our rulebook, the act of checking an opponent to the head, in any manner, is defined as a head check, and it will be penalized as either as a minor, a major or a match penalty based on the degree of impact," said Baker.

0

Your unconditional rejection of violence makes you smugly think of yourselves as noble, as enlightened, but in reality it is nothing less than abject moral capitulation to evil. Unconditional rejection of self-defense, because you think its a supposed surrender to violence, leaves you no resort but begging for mercy or offering appeasement.

-Terry Goodkind

Sex Panther cologne -- 50 percent of the time, it works every time.

-Anchorman

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

He was reaching for the puck, how is he supposed to do that while keeping his head up? I'm not necessarily criticizing the hit, but this isn't a case of someone skating across the blue line with their head down and getting drilled by a defenseman.

0

"Swim against the tide, don't follow the group, stay away from the majority, seek out the fresh and new, stay away from the poseurs, and don't be a barnacle. Be original, be different, be passionate, be selfless and be free. Be a hockey fan."
--John Buccigross

He was reaching for the puck, how is he supposed to do that while keeping his head up? I'm not necessarily criticizing the hit, but this isn't a case of someone skating across the blue line with their head down and getting drilled by a defenseman.

He cut to the slot (an aggressive move towards a dangerous area), briefly lost control of the puck, looked down and reached for it, and totally didn't pay attention to the man standing in his way, who hit him straight-on and, so far as I can tell, didn't go out of his way to target the head or raise an elbow or anything nasty like that. I don't know the OHL rules on checking, so 731 might be right about its illegality according to league rules, but in my book (whatever it's worth), it looked like a pretty clean hockey play. Yakupov is very skilled, but he needs to pick his spots. Whether you want to call it putting his head down or just putting himself in a vulnerable position, you can't make a move like that right into the slot and not expect to meet some opposition, especially in the NHL.

He cut to the slot (an aggressive move towards a dangerous area), briefly lost control of the puck, looked down and reached for it, and totally didn't pay attention to the man standing in his way, who hit him straight-on and, so far as I can tell, didn't go out of his way to target the head or raise an elbow or anything nasty like that. I don't know the OHL rules on checking, so 731 might be right about its illegality according to league rules, but in my book (whatever it's worth), it looked like a pretty clean hockey play. Yakupov is very skilled, but he needs to pick his spots. Whether you want to call it putting his head down or just putting himself in a vulnerable position, you can't make a move like that right into the slot and not expect to meet some opposition, especially in the NHL.

He was in a vulnerable position because he lost control of the puck. At that point the only way his head doesn't lower is if he just gives up on the play. This isn't a typical "kid needs to keep his head up" play. Every time there is a big hit some fan always says he needs to keep his head up. People said the same thing about the big hit Brandon Sutter took in his rookie year where he leaned forward to try to poke the puck by a defender and he got crushed. If he and Yakupov didn't lean in for the puck, they would just be handing the puck over to the other team. You can't play hockey like that. Obviously you keep your head up when you have control of the puck but if you don't have control of the puck you can't be out there trying to avoid contact. You never give up on the puck, but sometimes you get leveled as a result, that's how the game goes.

0

"Swim against the tide, don't follow the group, stay away from the majority, seek out the fresh and new, stay away from the poseurs, and don't be a barnacle. Be original, be different, be passionate, be selfless and be free. Be a hockey fan."
--John Buccigross

He was in a vulnerable position because he lost control of the puck. At that point the only way his head doesn't lower is if he just gives up on the play. This isn't a typical "kid needs to keep his head up" play. Every time there is a big hit some fan always says he needs to keep his head up. People said the same thing about the big hit Brandon Sutter took in his rookie year where he leaned forward to try to poke the puck by a defender and he got crushed. If he and Yakupov didn't lean in for the puck, they would just be handing the puck over to the other team. You can't play hockey like that. Obviously you keep your head up when you have control of the puck but if you don't have control of the puck you can't be out there trying to avoid contact. You never give up on the puck, but sometimes you get leveled as a result, that's how the game goes.

I agree with this. And I am also bothered when people use the hockey cliche at inappropriate times to unfairly dismiss a helpless offensive player who was the victim of an illegal or dirty hit. But in my opinion, that's not what happened here. I disagree that it was not Yakupov's fault that he was in a vulnerable position in this particular play. You say that there was nothing else he could do except hand the puck over to the other team at that point, and that's exactly what he should have done. If you make a flashy, aggressive offensive play like that and cut to the middle and lose the puck, then too bad. You either pull up and avoid the hit while turning the puck over, or put yourself in a position to take the hit hard and try and get the puck back, which is what Yakupov chose to do. It's not as if the hit came out of nowhere or the guy was hunting Yakupov down. Nail skated basically right into the guy in the high slot and, perhaps naively, did not anticipate such a hard hit was coming. If Yakupov wanted to play it safe, he could have pushed around the defender to the outside and brought it below the goal line, or chipped it around the boards, or any number of the many other possible "safer" options. He chose the flashy play cutting to the slot and by doing that, risked losing the puck and getting hit.

So perhaps you're right that simply saying "he should have kept his head up" is not being fair to Yakupov. Instead, I could have said that "he should exercise more caution when making flashy offensive maneuvers on the rush, because momentarily losing the puck and putting yourself in a vulnerable position can leave your open to a strong body check." Either way, in a hit like this, I think the onus is on the attacking player not to put himself into such a vulnerable position in an area of the ice where contact regularly occurs.

So perhaps you're right that simply saying "he should have kept his head up" is not being fair to Yakupov. Instead, I could have said that "he should exercise more caution when making flashy offensive maneuvers on the rush, because momentarily losing the puck and putting yourself in a vulnerable position can leave your open to a strong body check." Either way, in a hit like this, I think the onus is on the attacking player not to put himself into such a vulnerable position in an area of the ice where contact regularly occurs.

Fair enough I suppose. In general I think the onus (usage of this word must have at least quadrupled in recent years thanks to the NHL) should be on the defending player to avoid the other guy's head, but a lot of times that is easier said than done because you don't know what the other guy is going to do and things happen very fast out there, and this is one of those cases. It's definitely a hit to the head but I don't think he deserves anything more than the penalty the rulebook prescribes, nor do I really fault Yakupov for keeping with the play. Sometimes these things just happen.

0

"Swim against the tide, don't follow the group, stay away from the majority, seek out the fresh and new, stay away from the poseurs, and don't be a barnacle. Be original, be different, be passionate, be selfless and be free. Be a hockey fan."
--John Buccigross